Formation and achievements of New Zealand Buddhist Council

In 2007, Buddhists from many traditions gathered in the Leys Institute hall in Ponsonby, Auckland, to discuss the creation of a new umbrella organisation to represent Buddhist temples and centres around Aotearoa. The following year the New Zealand Buddhist Council was registered as an incorporated society, and it from is this milestone that we’re counting ten years.

Since our small beginning, we’ve grown our membership to around 25 organisations, from Kerikeri to Invercargill.

Over the last ten years we’ve done many things. We’ve:

worked with Immigration New Zealand to change regulations for work visas and PR for Buddhist clergy so they are better suited to monastic rules, and passed on information to our members on successfully navigating the application process

Presenting the Dhammapada to Parliament’s Clerk of the House in 2010

distributed over 700 donated Dharma books to 18 New Zealand prisons and facilitated Dharma and meditation classes in conjunction with Pu Shien Temple at the new Wiri prison, mainly to Chinese inmates